William Harold Hutt
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
who described himself as a classical liberal, although some identify him more closely with the Austrian School
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...
.
Early life
Hutt was born into a working-class, but educated family in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where his father was a compositor
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
. After he completed high school during the height of the First World War, young Bill began training as a pilot, but was forced to abandon his training with the end of the war.
Education
Hutt attended the London School of EconomicsLondon School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE) where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree under the "leading influence" of Edwin Cannan
Edwin Cannan
Edwin Cannan was a British economist and historian of economic thought. He was a professor at the London School of Economics from 1895 to 1926....
. After his 1924 graduation from LSE, Hutt worked for a publisher until 1927. It was during this period that Hutt wrote his first published essay, entitled "The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century" (1925).
Professional career
Rather than wholly removing himself from academia upon the completion of his undergraduate degree, Hutt remained immersed in the LSE culture, attending LSE classes informally until March 1928, when he accepted a position as senior lecturer at the University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
(UCT), South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. In 1930, Hutt was promoted to "Chair of Commerce" at UCT. Later, Hutt would be named "Dean of the Faculty of Commerce."
In his writings on collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
, including his first book, The Theory of Collective Bargaining (1930), Hutt disputed the commonly held position that labor was at a disadvantage in bargaining with employers, an idea which some had used to justify organized violence by trade unions. He also argued against the idea that the labor market consists of a "bilateral monopoly." Although Hutt argued vehemently against what he considered to be injustices committed by trade unions, he did not advocate their outright abolition. According to Australian writer Rafe Champion
Rafe Champion
Rafe Champion is an Australian writer. He was born in the Australian state of Tasmania, and grew up on a farm in the northern part of that state, near Irishtown...
, Hutt believed that,
[Unions] had (and have) many useful functions in addition to acting as friendly societies for health and welfare provision. They could help their members to improve their qualifications and locate the best paid work, and they could provide assistance to members subjected to unfair treatment by management.
Hutt later became known as a leading voice in the academic community condemning South African apartheid. He vehemently objected to the policy, arguing in his 1964 critique that it was little more than a means by which white labor unions used the government to outlaw black competition.
He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society
Mont Pelerin Society
The Mont Pelerin Society is an international organization composed of economists , philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour classical liberalism...
. Hutt's work has been notably praised by George Selgin
George Selgin
George A. Selgin is a professor of economics in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington DC, and an associate editor of Econ Journal Watch...
and Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan
James M. Buchanan
James McGill Buchanan, Jr. is an American economist known for his work on public choice theory, for which he received the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy...
.
In his 1936 book "Economists and the Public" he coined the now famous concept "consumer sovereignty".
Books
- The Theory of Collective Bargaining (1930)
- Economists and the Public (1936)
- The Theory of Idle Resources (1939)
- Plan for Reconstruction (1943)
- Keynesianism Retrospect and Prospect: A Critical Restatement of Basic Economic Principles (1963)
- The Economics of the Colour Bar: A Study of the Economic Origins and Consequences of Racial Segregation in South Africa (1964)
- Politically Impossible...? (1971)
- The Strike-threat System: The Economic Consequences of Collective Bargaining (1973)
- A Rehabilitation of Say's Law (1974)
- Individual Freedom: Selected Works of William H. Hutt (1975)
- The Keynesian Episode: A Reassessment (1979)